Gap Year Experiences

Pepper Arrive in Cape Town

Monday 23 March 2009

The final 3 nights of the road trip before Cape Town were spent camping on the cliff edge overlooking Vic Bay which cannot fail to astonish. Despite a few initial looks of anxiety about the thought of "roughing it", these were soon taken away with the sight of blow up mattresses and arm chairs - I think the ladies were impressed. Days were spent soaking up the rays, surfing and paintballing and evenings were spent around the fire and listening to the waves.

After game reserves, scuba diving, surfing, volunteering and then an action packed 2 week road trip, Cape Town has been the long anticipated finale for this trip. No matter how many times you have visited this city or how many years you have lived here, you never lose that sense of excitement when returning.

We arrived in Cape Town last Saturday and made our way straight onto Clifton 4th beach, a favourite spot of ours for champagne and a welcome sunset over the Atlantic. We then headed for Buena Vista Social Club, a funky cuban restaurant, for supper to meet some of our Cape Townian friends. The end of the night was spent at one of the latest clubs, Cheval, and a taster of what was to come.

Every Sunday in summer Cape Town is blessed with an open air concert in Kirstenbosch botantical gardens overlooked by Table Mountain. We saw the Dirty Skirts, a really popular and up and coming local band with an awesome atmosphere. We then made it to Caprice for one of the most lively nights in Cape Town - the fact that it is a Sunday night gives a slight indication of how relaxed this city really is!

Monday was, for most, a day of recovery and reflection before the start of the volunteering programme! We went into the Leap school on Tuesday to meet Bonisile, our coordinator. This charity funded organisation helps to bridge the gap between schooling and university for underpriviledged students in the local townships. He introduced us to all the staff and gave us a guided tour of Lunga showing us some of the projects that they work with such as a pre-prep school and old peoples' centre. Wednesday and Thursday were then spent helping out in English classes and with the evening meals that are served for students that cannot work in their home environments. We were also treated to seeing the cultural afternoon which involved the students performing traditional Xhosa dancing, gum boot and hip hop dancing and African drumming.

I will leave Jules to follow up with her diary entry of the weekend's events so bye for now from everyone here in Cape Town,

Johnny